The Collar
by Dani Pink Cloud
Summary: Set during "Concordia." A look into Father Jack's mind as he makes a huge decision, with implied Erica/Jack romance. One-shot.


**Disclaimer: I don't own V.**

**A/N: This is my first attempt at V fanfiction, so I don't know what's out there, but here's my little take on "Concordia." **

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To lose it or not to lose it. The real question was to be or not to be – in reference, of course, to the priestly life. Father Jack Landry was faced with a choice he shouldn't have to make.

But he was the one who had signed up for this. He could take one for the team, especially knowing that the "team" was, potentially, all humankind. If Jesus, his Lord, could make a sacrifice as huge as his own life, Father Jack could give up his priestly status.

They wanted to assassinate Anna. Father Jack wanted her to go, sure. He shouldn't think that kind of thing, but he did. He couldn't help it, after seeing everything she had done, after knowing that she wasn't here to save lives. She was here to take them for herself. But this was murder they were talking about, and he already had enough blood on his hands. There had to be a better way. He sided with Erica, but no matter how stubborn the pair of them were, Hobbs' and Eli Cohn's violent plans won the argument. Father Jack wasn't so sure how good an idea it had been to take Hobbs on to their little group, let alone the extraordinarily more violent Eli Cohn. But if Erica thought it was all right, he would go along with her.

But this assassination was something new, something nothing near anything they'd attempted before. They were playing on the offensive now, and they knew Anna's defense would be strong. But somehow, Hobbs and Eli Cohn – and now they even had Erica convinced – thought they could and would break through.

Anna was going down tonight. It was a long shot, but that was going to happen. So why did Father Jack keep resisting? Fighting against his own group? Battling against what he believed . . . and yet for it at the same time?

"Are you in?" Hobbs was saying to the group in general.

_It's kind of a big decision! _Jack wanted to shout. He would be agreeing to go against everything he stood for, agreeing to murder, agreeing to protest against the Visitors himself.

That was his role in the presented plan – to raise a protest against the Visitors, creating a diversion and giving Eli and Hobbs the chance to get into the gala with their equipment. A diversion shouldn't be too challenging; a protest would not be hard to raise. The problem was the announcement from the Vatican. When he was found to have led the protest against the Visitors, which of course he would, he would certainly lose his collar.

Father Jack found it ironic that now, of all times, he was faced with the decision to voluntarily lose his ordained position as a priest. Because it was just the other day that he had been going around in civilian clothes, his white collar gone, just because. It was just the other day that Erica had come to him crying and they had sat there in a close embrace for a long time and Father Jack had had time to wonder and to feel something he had never felt before for another person – love. It was just the other day that Father Jack had begun to question his call to become a priest, wondering what his life would have been like if he hadn't wimped out after Iraq and decided to be a priest.

And now was his chance. His shot at another life – but of course, that new life would come with some built-in issues. Like the fact that people would be out to kill him.

"I could – I _will _lose my collar for this," Father Jack warned the group. "And if we're caught –"

"We won't be caught," Hobbs snapped.

"And it's too late in the game for your priest collar to be worth anything anyway," Eli shrugged. When everybody stared at him, appalled at his callousness, he stared back. "What? If the alien invasion is coming now, people aren't going to care about priests anymore."

Father Jack could have argued the point, but he just rolled his eyes and ignored Eli's comment. He had found that the only way to deal with that man was to ignore him, tune him out. "You'd better hope you're right," he told Hobbs. "But I'm in." He glanced over at Erica. It was okay. It would all be worth it. And he couldn't forget – even with the distraction of Erica – they were going to save the world from the alien invasion.

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**A/N: Hope you enjoyed that! Please review! :)**


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